Category Archives: On This Day

Herman Melville was born on this day in 1819. Moby-Dick is one of my all-time favorite books, so I figured I wouldn’t just re-hash that old territory, but compile here 5,000,000 quotes about Melville. They come from everywhere: from reviews … Continue reading →

Often Rebuked by Emily Brontë Often rebuked, yet always back returning To those first feelings that were born with me, And leaving busy chase of wealth and learning For idle dreams of things which cannot be: Today, I will not … Continue reading →

“That’s All Right”, what would be the first single, which went off like a bomb (at least in Memphis, although other regions of the South would follow) was recorded on July 5, 1954, by Elvis Presley, Bill Black (on bass) … Continue reading →

Today is the birthday of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. His writing meant a great deal to me when I was 15, 16, and I have never forgotten that. Here is an extraordinary excerpt from Wind, Sand and Stars – a book … Continue reading →

Helen Keller and Charlie Chaplin Today is Helen Keller’s birthday. Her autobiography, The Story of My Life is essential reading. In 1932, a doctor saw a photograph of Helen Keller on the observation deck of the Empire State Building. He … Continue reading →

Billy and Audrey Wilder One of my favorite directors. I love his tips for screenwriters (#6 helped me enormously when I was writing my own script and problem-solving the final scene.) Billy Wilder’s Tips for Writers 1. The audience is … Continue reading →

“This work [Paul Muldoon’s book ‘The Annals of Chile’] gives the impression of coming clean and being clandestine at one and the same time. It is Joycean in its combination of the everyday and the erudite, but it is also … Continue reading →

My parents had Clancy Brothers at Carnegie Hall on vinyl, and we listened to it constantly. It was the background of my childhood. So I memorized this piece (having no idea it was Yeats) probably by the time I was … Continue reading →

From Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams, by Nick Tosches. Getting to the heart of it all. His schoolmates had never really known him. Even his loving family could not tell for sure what lay within this … Continue reading →